This blog was created as a place to put pieces of my family histories as I find them. The goal is to make a story of each ancestor. THIS INFORMATION IS NOT DOCUMENTED NOR VERIFIED. IT IS JUST A PLACE TO PUT INFORMATION UNTIL IT HAS BEEN RESEARCHED FURTHER. PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE IT AS FACT.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

EDWARD BULKELEY 1540-1620

[Ancestral Link: Lura Minnie Parker (Stagge), daughter of Minnie May Elmer (Parker), daughter of Mark Alfred Elmer, son of Hannah Polina Child (Elmer), daughter of Alfred Bosworth Child, son of Hannah Benedict (Child), daughter of Hannah Carter (Benedict), daughter of John Carter, son of Hannah St. John (Carter), daughter of Matthias St. John, son of Matthias St. John, son of Matthias St. John, son of Sarah Bulkeley (St. John), daughter of Edward Bulkeley.]

[Ancestral Link: Lura Minnie Parker (Stagge), daughter of Minnie May Elmer (Parker), daughter of Mark Alfred Elmer, son of Hannah Polina Child (Elmer), daughter of Alfred Bosworth Child, son of Hannah Benedict (Child), daughter of John Benedict, son of Daniel Benedict, son of John Benedict, son of Anna St. John (Benedict), daughter of Mark St. John, son of Sarah Bulkeley (St. John), daughter of Edward Bulkeley.]

The Chapter-House of Westminster Abbey 1894Edward was a Prebend (member of cathedral clergy: a member of the clergy of a cathedral or collegiate church) at Westminster Abbey in 1594

Edward was Prebend of Chester Cathedral, 1574

Shropshire, Shrewsbury, St Mary's Church

Edward was Vicar of St. Mary, Shrewsbury, 1578-82

Edward was Prebend of Lichfield Cathedral, 1594

Church where Edward and his son Peter Bulkeley preached in Odell, Bedfordshire, England.According to Wikipedia, Peter succeeded his father as rector of Odell, 1610-1635.

HOME OF REVEREND. EDWARD BULKELEY BUILT IN 1600'sEarly 1600's, Odell, Bedford, England

Edward Buckeley Brief Family HistoryFor eleven generations the Bulkeley had lived no more than twenty miles from Beeston Castle. The castle itself was begun about 1220 when the oldest known Bulkeley was a mature man, and it had played its part in many a skirmish. By the time the twelfth generation of these Bulkeleys was born in the 1500s, the castle was described as shattered and ruinous. The early 16th century was a time of turmoil. The Renaissance and its child, the Protestant Reformation, were sweeping in waves of liberation and conflict across Europe. In England the sentiment against the foreign Pope and the rich clergy was growing. In 1533 Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn, and the next year, by the Act of Supremacy, he made himself the only supreme head of the Church of England the break between England and Rome was complete. In 1537 Henry commissioned an English translation of the Bible, and by 1539 he had dissolved or suppressed all the monasteries. It was, perhaps, the next year, 1540, that Edward Bulkeley was born. And it was into the new Church of England that he was baptized. By the time Edward was a teenager it was determined that he was to become a scholar, and he was sent to Cambridge, 125 miles from his native fields of Cheshire and Salop. There, in the fall term Michaelmas of 1555, he entered St. Johns College with other 14 and 15 year olds. Cambridge University was, by then, over three centuries old, but St. Johns had just been founded in 1511. Newer yet was Trinity College, founded by Henry VIII in 1546, a symbol of the crown's strong support for the new Protestant bent toward learning, and still today the largest college in the university. At St. Johns Edward followed the normal course of study, earning his bachelor of arts in 1559/60, whereupon he was made a fellow of the college. He continued for a master of arts in 1563. Apparently by then he had decided on the priesthood, and after another six years supported, no doubt, with Bulkeley funds from the west he completed his bachelor of divinity, in 1569. About 1566, Edward married Olive Irby, ca 1547 1614/5. She was the daughter of John Irby and Rose Overton and was descended from a long line of Lincolnshire Irbys. Because Olive was from eastern England, Edward probably met her in relation to his Cambridge studies, not back home in Woore. In 1571, at somewhat over 30 years of age, Edward obtained the rectorship at All Saints Church in the village of Odell pronounced Odl in Bedfordshire, less than 30 miles west of Cambridge. And here he and Olive settled for the rest of their lives except, as it seems, for four years in Shrewsbury, serving a rural, out of the way parish and raising eleven children, mostly girls. The first child, Mary, was born probably in 1567, and the others followed at regular intervals; Frances, Judith, Martha, Nathaniel, Deborah, Dorcas, Elizabeth, Sarah, Paul, and lastly Peter, born January 31, 1582/3. For a brief four year span, 1878-82, Edward was simultaneously vicar at St. Mary s Church in Shrewsbury, in Salop. Records attest to his residence there for a time. The Burgess Roll of 1580 for the Shrewsbury Corporation indicates that Edward Bulkeley of Shrewsbury, professor of theology, son of Thomas, was admitted as a burgess, and that he had issue, namely, Nathaniel, age 6 Mary, 13 Frances, 12 Judith, 10 Martha, 8 Deborah, 5 Dorcas, 3 and Elizabeth, 1. We know little of Edward's career. As was the custom, he was supported by a stipend a prebend from the estates of well endowed cathedrals Chester in 1574, Westminster in 1583, and Lichfield in 1594. Meanwhile, he had been granted a doctor of divinity degree by St. Johns in 1578. So by the time he was 40 he was an esteemed pastor, the Reverend Edward Bulkeley, D.D. He was among the several clergymen appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1608 for the Levy of Armour in Bedfordshire among the clergy. That the clergy should be directly responsible to James I and his lords, and might be mobilized for battle by them, was an extreme offense to that growing body of Christians called Puritans, of which Edward was one. Edward lived in a remarkable time in English history. Born in the tempestuous days of Henry VIII's reign, he survived the violent swings toward Protestantism under Edward VI and Catholicism under Bloody Mary that followed. His years of ministry coincided very closely with the reign of Henry's daughter Elizabeth. They were years of energy, action, display, advancing prosperity and financial stability, humanism, nationalism, world wide exploration, remarkable progress in architecture, music, literature, poetry and drama. And they were years in which the Church of England became clearly established as the religion of the state, to which all must publicly conform. This church was a tactful compromise, an imprecise melding of Catholic and Reformation traditions, but it was to be uniform and compulsory. Though the Catholics on the right and the Puritans on the left clamored and plotted for change, Elizabeth and her bishops held this Anglican Compromise together until the end of the century. With Elizabeth's death in 1603 its disintegration was rapid and devastating. Edward is described as a moderate Puritan. We can assume that, though faithful to queen and bishop, he leaned toward a more thorough reformation of the church. It is easier to imagine the context of his life and career when it is seen in relation to some major events of the times, especially those that were affecting the shape of society

Dr. Bulkeley resigned his Odell pastorate in 1609, probably due to failing health, and it was taken up immediately by his son Peter. Edward and Olive continued to live in or near Odell, but she died within a few years. Th e Odell parish register of burials reads, 10 March 1614/15.

Mrs. Olive Bulklye, the wyffe of Master Edward Bulklye, doctor. And six years later, with his own hand, son Peter recorded his father's burial 5 January, 1620

1. The Right Worshipfull Mr. Edward Bulckly, Dockter of Devinitie. Across the Atlantic they would call the winter that Edward died the starving time. Nearly half the Plymouth colonists from the Mayflower were to perish before the summer of 1621. But half survived. And their survival, grim as it was, opened the way for hundreds, thousands, of others to follow among them Edward's son Peter. did it tweakely and sleightly as was proved by the testimony of John Wakefield the miller, himselfe allso nott denying eitt Itt was ordered that he should make good the damage butt because the damage is not justly known what itt is, Mr. Goodyear, and Mr. Gregsonare to veew the worke, and consider off and sett downe the damage by his defective workmanship... Hoadly, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, 1638 1649, p.75. We can forgive this dereliction of duty, however, since at the time he was likely preoccupied by matters more important than the millwork, i.e., his marriage to Catherine or Katherine Cooke, the widow of Andrew Hull, and the birth of the couple's first child.

REV. EDWARD BULKELEY (Rev.) - EDWARD BULKELEY, D.D., second son of Thomas Bulkeley of Woore, Shropshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Randall Grosvenor, was born not far from 1540. He matriculated pensioner from St. John's College, Camhridge, Michaelmas, 1555; Scholar, 1555;, B.A.,1559/6O M.A., 1563; B.D., 1569; DD. 1578; Fellow, 1560. He obtained the rectorship of Odell in Bedfordshire, probably in 1571. He "compounded" for the living at Odell, 6 March 1571/2, as it is shown by the Bishops Certificates of the Diocese of Canterbury.* This means that he then paid to his superior his first year's salary, as was then the established practice in the English Church.

He married; probably about 1566, OLIVE IRBY, born say 1547, buried at Odell, 10 March 1614/5, daughter of John and Rose (Overton) Irby, by whom he had three sons and twelve daughters.

It is very difficult to learn much of the personal history of a minister who lived in the sixteenth century and who, by the very nature of his calling, did not figure in the political annals of his generation. He was Prebend of Chester, 1574; of Westminster, of Lichfield, 1594; and was Vicar of St. Mary, Shrewsbury, 1578-82. We know that he was one of the commissioners appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1608 for the "Levye of Armour" in Bedfordshire among the clergy.

Rev. Richard Madockes of Woodhall.[Odell], county Bedford, in his will dated 15 August 1606, proved 27 November 1606, after providing for his relatives in Shrewsbuy, gave legacies to Mr. Doctor Bulkley, Mistress Olive Bulkley, and their daughter Mistress Elizabeth Bulkley. and appointed Edward Bulkley, D.D., and pastor, sole executor. Dr. Bulkeley's daughter the "Mistress Elizabeth" referred to above, married Richard Whittingham, of Sutterton, county Lincoln. He in his will, dated 6 March 1615, proved 1 April 1618, made provision for his wife Elizabèth, by whom he then had no children, and his own heirs; and then gave legacies to his "brother" Mellowes' children to William Ingoldsbie, a son of brother Ingoldsbie, clerk, and the rest of sister Ingoldsbie's children, and to Olive Welbie and all the rest of her brothers and Sisters; also to his father-in-law, Mr. Doctor Buckley, his brother-in-law Mr. Peter Buckley, and the latter's son Edward; and made Mr. Anthony Ingoldsbie, of Fishtoft, clerk, one of the supervisors of the will.

Dr. Bulkley was a moderate Puritan; he resigned his pastorate in 1609, probably because of increasing age, and died at Odell early in January 1620/1. His burial on 5 January 1620/1 was entered in the Odell registers by his son Peter, who had succeeded him as Rector.

The will of Edward Bulkley late of "Woodhall" Bedford, doctor of theology, deceased, was proved January 1620/1, and a commission to administer was granted to Peter Bulkley, son of the said deceased, and executor named in the will [westminster Act Book, No. 3, fo. 59] The will does not exist, either filled or in the register.